


she almost believed him

by MrsNoraPalmer



Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)
Genre: F/M, as per usual, fake marriage au, fake marriage trope, i blame beth and sophie, rated m for later
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-10
Updated: 2018-12-18
Packaged: 2019-09-15 21:14:17
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 15,452
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16940847
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MrsNoraPalmer/pseuds/MrsNoraPalmer
Summary: Ray finds a quite... unorthodox loophole in the Time Bureau's bylaws that after pulling some strings allows Nora to be released from prison. Now they just have to convince the Legends and other watchful eyes that they are a happily married couple. Being in love with the other person secretly shouldn't make that too hard, right? Fake marriage plot.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I completely blame sophie for the initial idea and beth egging me on further.

This was not her idea. No, it really was not. She was finishing up a letter to Ray when a group of time agents came in with Ray, Nate, and Hank Heywood all coming in behind. Nora, suddenly anxious and worried she’d be taken for testing or some other sketchy bullshit she backed as far away from them as she could in her containment field.

“Good news Miss Darhk, or should I say, Mrs. Palmer, you have been let out into the custody of your husband.”

Nora’s eyes widened. She thought he’d been kidding when he suggested it in his last letter.

Ray had said he’d been reading through the Time Bureau’s bylaws, trying to catch them on a loophole so she could be let out because she had had her agency stripped away long enough by Mallus, so she didn’t deserve to have it continuously taken because of a crime she had very little agency in committing.

Then he had found that those who had committed crimes that they were at least partially mentally incapacitated during the events of could be released into the probationary custody of their legal spouse. He had joked that if only they were married (but noted that he didn’t mean it in a ‘I like like you way’) that she could be out already.

Nora swallowed hard. “What?”

“I was finally able to find this and now we get to go home!” Ray produced a very real looking marriage certificate, right down to hers and his signatures. Where the hell had he gotten a scan of her signature?

Nate clapped ray on the back. “How come you didn’t tell me or any of the Legends you got married?”

“Well seeing as things were a bit touch and go with Nora’s safety I wasn’t sure when would’ve been the best time.”

Nora felt like she was watching someone else’s life play out before her. Her things were being gathered up and placed in a duffel bag and shoved into her arms in a matter of minutes and then she was promptly pushed into the arms of her absolutely 100% fake husband.

Ray led Nora to the jumpship, mindful of the agents behind them. She hoped he would explain his entirely stupid and insane plan when they were safely inside. The door closed behind them. Just them and Ray punched in the coordinates to go meet the Waverider.

“You’re probably wondering what in the world is going on…” Ray finally said after a minute.

“Yeah, you know I kind of am. Ray, what are you thinking? Pretending to be married to me? I know you sometimes go the unorthodox mile to make sure that people know they’re cared for or whatever but pretending to be married to me is quite possibly one of the most unorthodox things you’ve ever done. I thought you were kidding when you mentioned it in your letter.”

Ray shrugged. “I just wanted you somewhere safe and that wasn’t the Time Bureau anymore.”

Nora furrowed her brows. “What do you mean?”

“It’s a long story and I’ll explain it eventually but the Waverider is the safest place for you now and getting a fake marriage license was the only way to get you there.”

“Fine. If we’re going to do this, we’re going to have to work on our cover. People will ask more in depth questions than Nate did and we’ll need to have mutual answers.”

Ray sucked in a deep breath. “Okay. Let’s get you settled and then we’ll talk about it over dinner?”

“Excuse me?”

“I just mean we’ll excuse ourselves to eat in my room and we’ll hash out the details. People will either think we’ve had a long day and just want to be married and by ourselves for a little bit…”

“Or think we’re having sex instead of having dinner with them.” Nora made an unpleasant face, even if she had definitely had dreams about Ray Palmer making love to her.

“Either way they won’t bug us unless there’s an emergency.”

xxxx

Nora tried not to make eye contact with any of the crew that greeted them at the jumpship. She wrapped her arms around herself and stayed close to Ray’s side. He carried her bags and chatted with everyone, deflecting each comment like he had already put way too much thought into the idea until they arrived at his bedroom door.

“Well we’re home now, we’d like to get Nora settled in and we’ll see you guys later.”

“Yeah you settle her into the bed, haircut.” Mick grunted and Sara smacked him on the back of the head.

“Mick, don’t be gross.” Zari said as the group left the pair at Ray’s room.

“Home sweet home.” Ray opened the door and she and Ray stepped inside.

Nora looked around his room. It was pretty minimalistic in possessions save for inventions he’d been tinkering with a papers full of equations she’d never understand. The was a closet to her left and a queen size bed with a navy blue comforter and sheet set adorning the bed.

“Ray… Thank you. I’ve been so caught up in not really being able to process your method but at the end of the day, you, for whatever reason, thought it was no longer safe for me there, and got me out. So thank you. I promise that I’ll continue my path of repentance even while I’m back in the real world.”

“I know you will. I’ve always believed in you.” He grinned. “So, you wanted to talk cover stories?”

xxxx

“When did we even find the time to get married?” Nora asked and shoved a mouthful of Chinese food into her mouth.

Ray thought about it for a minute. “What if, we tell them we started a relationship when you and your dad had kidnapped me but of course your dad and Mallus would’ve hated that so we would’ve had to keep it a secret and then when you were de-Mallus’ed, once the shock of losing your father wore off…”

“I realized I was now alone and I didn’t want to be alone and we took the jumpship to get married really fast at a courthouse.”

“And then the Time Bureau arrested you and I gave you the time stone but we felt it still wasn’t safe to tell people but once I found the loophole, I knew it was the perfect time.”

Nora and Ray grinned at each other. A genuine look of affection. That sounded like a great plan. Now all they had to do was convince the team they were actually in love with one another.

“Why did you think that it wasn’t safe for me at the Time Bureau anymore?”

Ray swallowed a piece of sesame chicken. “I overheard Nate and his dad talking about taking a special interest in certain inmates because of their value to the DoD if they were… controllable. Now I’m sure Nate thought he couldn’t possibly mean you even if he didn’t like the idea but I knew, I just knew that if I didn’t act, I’d go to come visit you and I’d be informed that you’d been removed for testing.”

Nora swallowed hard and sat down her box of Chinese food. “Oh… what about all of the other creatures? They don’t deserve to be experimented on either…”

“I know but I couldn’t have married all of them. You’re a real human being, Nora, not just a magical creature. Those creatures have worth too, as much as human beings but you’re a human being I care a great deal about. I wanted to see if I could even secure your safety before I tried like freeing all the inmates or something.” He shrugged. “I’m working on a plan already, don’t worry.”

Nora sucked in a breath. “Okay,” She said, feeling wholly and completely undeserving to have earned her freedom while other inmates were at risk of being experimented on.

xxxx

That night, Nora went to the fabrication machine to make a few pairs of pajamas and other garments and returned to their room thankfully without the others bothering her. She entered the room to see Ray in the middle of changing and almost ran into the doorframe trying to turn on her heel to prevent her from seeing something.

“I’m sorry! I thought you’d be gone longer so I changed in here.”

Nora used her pile of new clothes to cover her face. “You’re fine! I’m just gonna awkwardly stand here until you’re done.” She closed the door behind her as best she could and waited for Ray to give her the all clear.

Nora threw the clothes on the bed. “Okay, if we’re sharing a room we gotta create some ground rules.”

Ray slid on his shirt and nodded. “Agreed.”

“Rule number one: we give each other a heads up about changing, if one of us is out of the room and there’s a possibility, we ask if the other is decent.”

Ray rubbed the back of his neck. “Definitely agreed. Any more rules?”

“Not right now but I’ll let you know if I think of any. Okay, now turn around I’m going to change.”

Nora slipped on a pair of soft pajamas and told Ray he could turn back around now that she was finished. She started putting away her clothes in the empty drawers he cleared out for her and then they both looked at the bed.

Ray moved first, grabbing a pillow from what she assumed was his side and the blanket that was draped across the end of the bed. This was ridiculous. It was Ray’s room. He was not sleeping on the floor.

Nora placed a hand on his arm. “I’m not going to take your bed from you. Put that stuff back we’ll make it work.”

Somehow, making it work meant laying as stiff as boards while not being relaxed and ready for bed at all despite how tired they were. They stared up at the ceiling, worried any other position might shift into accidental touching.

Nora let out a frustrated groan. “Listen, if we wake up near each other, just whoever wakes up first move. I’m not going to assume you’re trying to start any funny business and you know I’m not either. So just deal with it like an adult. I’m tired and this is not comfortable.” Nora shifted onto her side, facing away from Ray, and finally let her body relax, stretching her legs out some, but keeping to her personal bubble.

Finally, she was able to fall asleep.

xxxx

The next morning, Nora woke surprisingly well rested. Usually her sleep was plagued with nightmares, but last night, she had been nightmare free in… she couldn’t think of the last time she went without a nightmare. Nora opened her eyes to see an arm around her waist slowly became aware of Ray’s embrace. It was warm and he kept his room a little colder than she was used to, and it was comfy. She felt his breathing and the soothing sensation almost lulled her back to sleep.

Nora had been the one to say whoever woke up and found them like this to just move and pretend like it didn’t happen but Nora laid there, relishing in the feeling of this embrace. She rarely had human contact, if it was anyone it was Mona acting a bit too much like Mona and it was usually just a gleeful hug. Mona. Oh Mona would flip the second she heard about her and Ray. That was definitely a conversation delegated for future Nora. She couldn’t think about it right now.

No, right now she wanted to just think about how good Ray’s arms felt around her. He was strong and his belongings smelled like him and each and every one of her senses were being invaded by him. She thought back to 24 hours ago. She was waking up in her Time Bureau prison cell. When they had come to release her, she had been finishing up a letter to Ray, finally confessing her feelings to him. But then there he was, pretending to be her husband. It all didn’t feel real. She had the letter somewhere and was suddenly worried about it getting mixed in with all of the ones she had already sent to him. She didn’t want him to find it and accidentally read it thinking it was one she already sent. That would be the first thing on her to do list after getting up and getting ready.

She continued to lay there in Ray’s arms, not really being bothered to change their position now that she was awake. She was in love with the man. He was now pretending to be her husband. What was the harm in a little indulgence?

Nora closed her eyes. Pretending this could actually be her life. Married to Ray, snuggling up to each other on a quiet morning. It was nice. Nora eventually felt herself drifting back off to sleep.

When she awoke next, Ray’s arms weren’t around her. She frowned and saw he had moved to sleep on his back and was back to sleep. Nora, knowing he was asleep, moved to lay her head on his chest and promptly fell back asleep.

Nora only stirred because she felt herself being moved. She pretended to stay asleep to just see what Ray would do and almost broke out in a smile when he placed a soft kiss to her forehead.

She stayed “asleep” for a few more minutes before stirring.

She looked at the other side of the bed and saw Ray staring up at the ceiling. “Good morning.” She murmured.

Ray looked over at her and smiled. “Hey there, did you sleep well?”

Nora nodded. “Yeah, I guess we also were good about not getting in each other’s space. Go us.” She grinned.

“Yeah… I guess we were. Hey I had an idea.”

“Yes?”

“The team will probably be wondering where our rings are. What do you say we get up and have some breakfast and then go make rings?”

Nora chuckled. “Sure. Sounds like a plan.”  
xxxx

If you had told Nora Darhk at probably any point in her life that she would be standing in front of a fabrication machine, figuring out what she wanted her wedding rings to look like, she would have called you a lunatic. She tried not to let herself enjoy the process too much. Ray had made his, a simple titanium wedding band and was now waiting for her to pick something.

Nora knew she was taking a lot longer than she probably should, had considered just fabricating a simple wedding band and calling it done but she almost let herself think this was real. She tried to imagine if Ray Palmer had gotten down on one knee and asked her to be his wife. What sort of ring would be in the ring box?

Nora held up two rings to Ray and smiled. “Okay, I think I can live with these.” She had fabricated a small circular diamond engagement ring a halo and with smaller diamonds going halfway down and a diamond wedding band with the same size diamonds as the smaller ones on the engagement ring.

Ray inspected them and smiled. “It seems everyone will think I have good taste.” He realized he was still holding the rings and grabbed her left hand. “May I?”

Nora took a deep breath in and met his gaze. She’d let herself enjoy this for just a moment. Nora nodded and he slid the rings onto her finger.

Nora looked down at her left hand and smiled. If this was real, Nora would tell herself they looked like they meant to be there. She looked back up at Ray and held out her hand. “Okay, now you.”

Ray dropped the thick titanium band into her open palm and Nora held his left hand and slid the ring onto his finger. She almost considered taking his hand after but a cough made them spring apart.

“What are you lot doing?”

Nora looked up to see Constantine and rolled her eyes. “Trying to have a private moment.”

“Go do that in your room, this is a hallway and other people live on this ship. They don’t need to see any demonstrations of your marital bliss. Especially if it just rubs it in.” Constantine moved past them and Nora let out a soft chuckle.

“That was close.”

“It was nice while it lasted,” Ray offered her a soft smile.

She almost believed him.

xxxx

Nora was making tea in the galley when Zari came up to prepare her tea as well.

“So, like, when the hell did you guys even become a thing?” She dropped a sugar cube into her mug.

Nora was thankful they had agreed on a story the night before. “Well if you must know, he and I started having feelings for each other while we were in Berlin.”

“While you kidnapped him? Isn’t that like Stockholm Syndrome?”

Nora rolled her eyes. “No. He just started breaking down my walls. We would talk in secret but I had to act like I was still following the plan because I couldn’t let my dad see I had a weakness. Love… it’s not a weakness but it would’ve been to him and I didn’t want to put Ray in danger. Once I was Mallus free and my dad sacrificed himself, we got married but then the Time Bureau wanted to arrest me so our telling everyone got put on hold.” She shrugged.

Zari, looking completely unconvinced, nodded slowly. “If you say so, it sure as hell would explain the look on Ray’s face every time someone brought you up.”

Nora blushed. There was no way. “Yeah, well, he makes me really happy.”

“Good for you.” Zari replied and left the kitchen.

Nora sighed. Lying that much took a lot out of her. She felt like with each lie she told, her heart wanted all of them to be true more and more. She looked down at her left hand and played with her rings. They might be from a fake marriage but playing with them was definitely starting to become a habit.

xxxx

Nora entered what she supposed was their room now and curled up on the bed with her tea. She picked up a book, one she was in the middle of reading when she had been released and began reading.

Ray came back to his room from a training session in a black tank top and athletic pants. Nora looked up from her book and sucked in a breath seeing Ray’s muscles on display like that. He was also still somewhat sweaty and it did not help that she had gotten to a particularly steamy love scene in her book. Her mind flashed through fantastical images of her and read in bed, just as sweaty, feeling his muscles under her fingertips and…

“Hey, how’s your day been?” Ray asked.

Nora jumped out of her thoughts and put her book down. “Goo… good. How’s your day been?”

Ray pulled out a clean shirt and jeans and his robe. “Pretty good, did some training now I’m going to freshen up and head down to the lab. If you want a change of scenery you could join me?”

Nora smiled. “I’d love that.” She nodded. “Just let me know when you’re headed down.” She started to pick up her book again, thinking Ray was leaving for the shower.

“Hey did you hear that the Legends are throwing us a party?”

“What?” Nora choked on her tea.


	2. Chapter Two

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Huge thanks to beth and sophie for their unwavering support and stalking of my google doc as I wrote this. Love you, my Golden Girls (ps I call Dorothy).

Nora paced back and forth. What should she do? Wear just a regular outfit to the party or actually dress up? This party was built on a marriage that was basically a stick house built on a foundation of straw. Nora had initially went to his lab with him to watch him work, it was cute seeing him mutter to himself but the more time ticked by, Nora grew anxious of the party that night. She’d need to make sure she had enough time to get ready.

She was still pacing when Ray came back up from the lab and he frowned, not understanding why she wasn’t ready yet.

“Hey… did you forget about the party?”

“No, of course not. That’s all I’ve thought about since I came back here. I can’t decide… I can’t decide what to wear. What are you wearing? Are you supposed to dress fancy? This marriage is fake and so I already feel bad about the crew throwing this party for us and I just don’t want to like show up and be dressed wrong…” She also ached inside that not only did she have to lie to people who may one day call her a friend but also because she was slipping between enjoying what was actually fake as reality and being torn up that it was really untrue, not to mention the price of acting in such a manner would cost her friends before she got them if they ever found out the truth.

Ray grabbed her shoulders gently. “Hey, it’s okay. Don’t overthink this. It’s a party celebrating our marriage, as fake as it may be. They’re happy for us and I think you should wear a dress.”

“Okay… that won’t be overdoing it?”

“Not at all! I think like a nice white dress would be pretty on you.” His voice softened.

Nora looked up at him, she so wished she could tell him how she felt. But not now. She placed a hand on one of his that held her shoulders and gave him a confident smile. “Okay.”

She left the room and headed straight towards the fabricator.

Nora returned and knocked on the door. “Decent?”

She heard a confirmation from Ray and came back inside with a dress draped over her arm. Nora swallowed when she saw Ray. He looked good. He was in a button down shirt with a tie and nice slacks and she saw a jacket draped on the bed and holy wow easy girl get a hold of yourself. Nora placed her hand across her racing heartbeat.

“I’ll wait outside for you?” Ray asked.

Nora nodded and he left the room. The smell of cologne nearly made her faint. She had to get a hold of herself. They weren’t even together. Nora did her makeup and left her hair down in loose waves and changed into her dress and heels. Maybe that way Ray wouldn’t look almost twice her size. She chose a bridal white long sleeve bodycon dress and once she checked herself over in the mirror, she walked outside to meet Ray.

Ray heard the door open and pushed himself off where he was leaning against the opposite wall and his eyes went wide. Time slowed down and the vision across from him stepped out into the hallway. His totally fake, though he wished not fake, wife, stepped out to greet him. She was dressed in white, like the blushing bride he wished she really was. He opened his mouth a couple of times to say something but couldn’t find the words.

“Ready to go?” She asked.

Ray nodded and offered her his arm. Nora took it and walked down the hallway with him until it opened up to the bridge of the Waverider. A buffet was lined up along one wall and there were decorations, wedding related balloons and streamers adorned the bridge and Nora wasn’t sure how to react.

Her and Ray weren’t really married. This was all a rouse and his friends were all here to celebrate a fucking rouse. A rouse she so wished was reality. Everything started to compound in her brain and Nora tense and Ray stopped them, looking at her before they approached the group.

“Nora, are you okay?” Ray whispered.

“I just need a minute.” Nora tore away from Ray and ran back down the hallway, putting her face in her hands.

Ray ran after her and caught her arm. “Hey, hey, hey, look at me, what’s wrong?”

Nora, who now had tears in her eyes look up at Ray. “Let’s go around the corner so they can’t hear us.” Nora pulled on his hand and pulled him around the corner.

“Okay, we’re here, hey, what’s wrong?” He instinctively reached up and swiped a tear that had fallen down her cheek away.

Nora closed her eyes and moved away from his touch. “They’re celebrating a rouse. They’re celebrating something that couldn’t be more fake. I thought I would be okay lying to your friends like that but I just can’t.” She also wasn’t sure how much longer she could commit to indulging in something she had dreamed about. When she was a kid she dreamed about being married and having a family. Now, Nora dreamed about marrying Ray and having a family with him.

“Nora, if we come clean they’ll send you back to the Time Bureau. It’s not safe for you there.”

Nora sighed. “I guess… you’ll just have to do most of the talking. I hate that they’re so happy for us, when there’s not even an us…” She wished Ray would respond with one of his signature smiles and suggest there could be a them but she knew he didn’t actually return her feelings.

“I know but I am happy that you’re here and that you’re safe.”

“That’s gonna have to be good enough, I guess.”

Ray naturally pulled Nora into a tight hug and she went willingly. She rested her head on his chest and he rested his cheek on the top of her head. Nora sighed sadly. She was going to have to be stronger than this.

They broke the hug and Nora wiped her tears away. “I can do this. We’ll just tell them I was super overwhelmed.”

Ray nodded and led her back onto the bridge.

xxxx

“So let me get this straight, you think her kidnapping you is so hot you decide it’s a good idea to sleep with her?” Mick said.

Ray rolled his eyes. “No, I saw who she is, deep down inside, and wanted to get to know her.”

“That sounds boring,” Mick replied and walked away to find some chips.

Sara shook her finger at Ray and Nora. “You know… Ava was telling me you had actually made friends with some of the people at the Bureau, Nora.”

“No?” Nora tilted her head. Who could she be talking about?

“Well, we thought it would be nice for you to have a friend here since we’re all friends with Ray.” Sara lifted up a time courier she had probably swiped from Ava the last time they saw each other and a portal opened up.

Mona came rushing in and made a beeline for Nora.

Nora hugged Mona awkwardly, as they usually did.

“OH MY GOSH. THE LILY AND MARSHALL OF OUR GENERATION GOT FREAKING MARRIED. YOU GUYS ARE HASHTAG MARRIED. WHY DIDN’T YOU TELL ME?”

“Mona… please take breaths between your sentences, I really don’t want you to pass out… again.” The last time Mona had delivered Ray’s letter to her, Nora had told her of her plans to lay out all of her feelings to Ray in the next letter and Mona was gushing so much that she didn’t take breaths between her sentences and passed out.

Mona took in a deep breath and nodded. “Sorry, I’m just so excited. Let me see the ring!!!!” Mona tugged Nora’s hand up to her face and carefully inspected the wedding set and looked at Ray. “This is so pretty you have good taste I mean duh you do, look who you married! Ohmygosh you guys are married!” Mona pulled them both in for a hug and started jumping up and down.

Ray grinned and pulled away from the hug. “Thank you for not only delivering our letters to each other while she was in prison but also giving my wife a friend and looking for her. I really appreciate it.”

If he hadn’t used the word ‘wife’, Nora would’ve almost imagined that Ray was actually talking about her in a completely truthful context. The thought only made her sadder. Using the word ‘wife’ wasn’t a truthful context.

Nora stared into her champagne and swirled the glass. She felt someone put an arm around her waist and jumped out of her thoughts. “Yes?”

“They want us to say something,” Ray’s kind eyes met hers and she put her lips in a thin line.

“I don’t know if I have the heart to do it.”

Ray nodded. “Don’t worry, I’ll do most of the talking.” He squeezed her gently with the arm he had around her waist and looked at the group. “Nora and I want to thank you all for throwing this party in our honor. We’re really thankful to not only have you all as friends but also to be able to live as a married couple after spending our first few months of marriage apart. We’re incredibly glad that you all are supportive of both our marriage and Nora’s stay on the ship and we just hope all of you can one day be as happy as Nora has made me.”

A feeling stuck in Nora’s throat. It didn’t feel like guilt or sorrow. It felt like want. But a sad want. A feeling that made her want to close her eyes and picture she was still in her prison cell waking up from a crazy dream.

Once the toast was over, Nora excused herself.

xxxx

Nora hadn’t even bothered changing into pajamas, just went straight to their room, kicked off her heels and laid on their bed, sitting up against headboard. She picked at her fingernails, meticulously painted a bright white for the event.

Ray came in about thirty minutes later, his eyes look like they were about to unleash a sea of tears and Nora didn’t know if she could take the guilt of causing his pain.

“Hey,” he said and closed the door behind him. “I told the team it’s been a little overwhelming for you to be showered in all that affection and just want to live in peace for a little bit. Since you hesitated coming in, in the first place, I think they believed it. Now, do you want to talk about the real reason you ran off?” He loosened his tie and sat on the bed in front where Nora was sitting against the headboard.

Nora had moved on to picking at a seam on her dress and looked up at him. “Not really… I guess…” She hesitated. She didn’t think that it was the right time to tell him how she felt but she needed to say something that felt like the truth. “I guess I’m having a hard time still yes, lying to your friends but also going through a mourning process I guess you could say.”

“Mourning process… what do you mean?”

“This is all fake, Ray, when I was in prison I knew that in order to survive I needed to shut down. You helped to keep one small door of hope open in the sky high walls I built to survive being in Time Prison. I didn’t think that there’d be any doors at all but when we started writing letters back and forth, I let that little door stay open. Now that it’s spiraled into this… it just makes me realize that once this is over. Once my sentence is over and you don’t need to have probationary custody of my sentence or whatever, this’ll be over. This fake marriage and I just have a hard time accepting I’ll ever had a real one. This is fake and this is the best I’m going to get. It’s hard to keep up with the lie without trying to indulge in it so I keep finding myself shutting down. I know that’s not fair to you or to anyone that thinks we’re this happy married couple but I keep feeling like it’s easier for me to do that.”

Ray reached out and took one of her hands. “I’m sorry… I hadn’t thought about this being hard on you. I was so caught up in making sure you were safe, I just figured ‘hey she’s a good liar, she can do anything include being fake married to me’ which we almost succeeded in doing once.” Ray and Nora both smiled, thinking of Berlin. “But I didn’t realize now that the your freedom is on the other side of this rouse that it would be hard on you. I don’t, however, think that this fake marriage should dictate whether or not you’ll actually ever find love. You’ll find it, Nora Darhk. And whoever you end up with, will be the luckiest person in the world.”

Nora wiped away tears that had been falling and choked on a laugh. “Yeah that’s cause I got to be Ray Palmer’s fake wife. Being a wife to such a boy scout like you definitely teaches you some skills you never thought you’d learn.”

“Like what?”

“Being honest about how you’re feeling with your partner.” And while she wasn’t totally being honest with him, expressing her feelings just didn’t feel right, she was being honest in that she knew that if they never got together, her fate would be exactly how she described it.

“Hmm, I guess you’re right. Is there anything else you want to talk to me about?”

Nora gave him a sad smile. “Maybe… this had occurred to me earlier, when you first told me about the party. If I hadn’t ran out like that, I was pretty sure the Legends were going to try and get us to kiss in front of them. Now, you probably figured out by now that spending twenty years as a demon vessel does not result in men knocking down my doors. I’ve never kissed anyone, Ray, and I was really worried about that being in front of everyone and it being obvious it was my first kiss. You know, in case that made any of them suspicious of us.”

Ray swallowed a lump in his throat. “Okay? So… what are you asking?”

“If we’re going to be convincing, I need to stop being sad every five seconds but also be able to act the part around others. Which includes PDA, which while we’d probably never show naturally other than holding hands, it may be… requested of us.”

“So you want us to practice… PDA?”

“I want you to kiss me, Ray Palmer. Just get it over with.”

Ray was speechless. This was a big step for Nora and something, should she so chose to want to find love after this, she should save for that relationship. Not their fake one. “We can just tell them to leave us alone and that our private life is our private life.”

“And if they start to question whether or not our marriage is real because we don’t even kiss once in front of them? I don’t want to go back to time prison and you said it wasn’t safe. I think this is a better option.”

Ray swallowed. “Okay… but just so it looks like we actually show each other affection behind closed doors.”

“Yup, exactly.” Now that it was actually quite possibly, most definitely happening, Nora wasn’t sure what to think. Ray pulled her legs into his lap, which surprised her, but realized it was so he could lean in closer.

Ray stopped a few inches from Nora’s face and met her gaze. “Are you sure?”

“Oh for the love of God, yes!” She said and tugged him in by his tie and kissed him.

Fireworks. Literal fireworks.

She thought she would suck at her first kiss and she probably did but holy hell if that’s what kissing Ray Palmer felt like for the first time, what would the second, third, tenth, hundredth, kiss feel like?

Ray pulled away and retreated out of her personal space. His lips tingled from the feeling of her lips on his. He wanted to kiss her again but that just for practice. That’s all it had been.

xxxx

When Ray had finally changed for bed that evening, he came back to find Nora much like he had that morning, curled up with a book sipping on a mug of tea. Ray couldn’t be more excited to climb into bed next to her. They were finally making progress, even if that just meant being more communicative with one another.

Ray grabbed a small stack of paperclipped together papers and settled onto his side of the bed. Nora glanced over at him and smiled. They sat there in a comfortable silence as Ray read through equations and Nora read through her book.

Eventually, Nora scooted closer to him, to the point where their upper arms brushed and she nudged him gently. “What are you reading?”

Ray, not sure how to handle her sitting that close. “Just looking through some equations for some things to upgrade the ATOM suit with.”

“Can you show me what some of it means?” Nora asked.

Ray nodded. “Absolutely.” He pointed at one line. “This, would really revamp the propulsion system for my blasters. I know that I was able to shoot all the way to the Berlin wall when we were on that rooftop but honestly that kind of range isn’t normal. This would make it to where that kind of range was part of the suits normal operations…”

Ray stopped, realizing that Nora’s head was resting comfortably on his shoulder. He looked down to see that she sound asleep, and while he wanted to be offending, thinking perhaps his science put her right to sleep, he just smiled at how nice it felt. He moved her book to her nightstand and set his papers on his. He gently moved them to a lying down position and Nora simply snuggled closer. So much for not touching, he thought. Ray eventually found a comfortable position and wrapped an arm around Nora then called for Gideon to turn out the lights, falling asleep next to Nora almost immediately.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Many thanks as always to my Golden Girls, Sophie and Beth for stalking the google doc and helping me work out scenes!

She wanted to find more ways to touch him, kiss him, all in the name of making sure they looked like a convincing couple. So she gave him the excuse that they should act like a couple who really, really enjoyed PDA.

Nora and Ray were in the galley, Nora was teaching him how to make the one dish she could make: baked chicken soup.

Of course Ray had a problem with nearly every ingredient. Too much sodium, too much fat, whoa thats way too much garlic powder. It was partially maddening but partially endearing.

The maddening part was slowly winning out, especially after he complained there were healthier things than rice she could use.

She almost kicked him out of the kitchen and said he was sleeping on the floor if he even so much uttered the word quinoa.

“Whoa guys, didn’t mean to step into some weird marital flirting. Hope it’s not too serious, kiss and make up or something.” Zari went over to the food fabricator and got a glass of orange juice and observed the couple at the galley’s island.

Nora elbowed Ray in the ribs playfully. “Yeah, Ray, that means to stop complaining about the ingredients. If you change anything it just doesn’t taste the same.”

“I’m sorry, I’ll let you cook and save how unhealthy it is until the end.”

“Mmm I can live with that.” Nora leaned up and pecked his lips. She felt like it was an expected and appropriate use of affection. She also really really liked kissing him.

Ray was surprised at her kisses in front of others but in an effort to make it seem real, he let himself actually enjoy it the way he wanted to.

Nora and Ray finished the soup shortly after Zari left and decided to take their bowls back to their room.

The longer Nora was on the ship, the more their room felt like her room too. Nora’s books were now on a small bookshelves and some other of her personal belongings were sprinkled onto the nightstand next to the side of the bed she slept on.

Ray and Nora sat on the bed and Ray grabbed a stack of papers he’d been reading through. Nora sat slightly at an angle to him so she could put her feet in his lap. Ray smiled and went back to his soup and reading.

Nora plucked a book from her bedside table and started reading as she ate her soup. Eventually she felt Ray shift and suddenly was away of the sensation of someone absently stroking her shin. She looked at Ray, now done with his soup, reading and stroking her shin. The feeling of the moment flushed throughout Nora’s entire body.

“I saw… umm… I saw you finished your soup, did you like it?”

Ray nodded and continued to read through his papers. After a minute, he registered he asked her a question and looked up. “I’m sorry did you say something?”

Nora smiled at Ray’s absent mindedness. “I asked if you liked the soup.”

“Oh yeah, I loved it, it would seem you’re not just a witch but a soup witch.”

“A soup witch?” Nora kicked his thigh playfully.

Ray laughed. “Yes a soup witch. You’re a cute little soup witch.”

“Little?!” She couldn’t help her grin though.

“Nora, you’re almost a foot shorter than me.”

“I will, with my witchly, not soup witchly, ways make you regret calling me that.”

“I’ve seen you in a Monsters Inc onesie, you don’t scare me.”

Nora, completely offended, put her soup on the nightstand and threw her book to the end of the bed and crawled into Ray’s lap, smacking his chest and Ray playfully grabbed her wrists and she kept trying to lean in anyways, they were both laughing at her efforts until Nora was laughing so hard she had to sit back on her feet and yanked her arms away from him.

Nora hid her face in her hands to hide her how much she was still smiling and blushing from the whole thing. Ray gently tugged her hands away from her face and Nora knew just how easy it would be to lean in and kiss him. She felt like they were leaning in further and further until, fuck it.

Nora pulled him in by his shirt and kissed him deeply. She wrapped her arms around his neck until she felt him pulling away.

The look on his face was one of shock, but Nora couldn’t tell if he liked it regardless. She realized what she had done and got off his lap. She had made a mistake.

“I’m sorry… I got caught up in the moment.”

“Me too…”

“Yeah… I mean at least we got some more kissing practice in.”

Ray, realizing he wasn’t going to have to talk her down the wall he thought she’d start putting up, smiled and nodded. “Yeah, you’re right, I’ll turn you into a glass half full kind of girl yet, Nora Darhk.”

xxxx

Nora couldn’t believe they were able to recover from their accidental kiss so quickly but there she was, with all the other Legends, sitting down to dinner with Ray’s arm resting comfortable across her shoulders.

Ray was discussing something with Nate, who had joined the Legends for dinner, something that went honestly completely over Nora’s head. It was maybe time travel, time bureau, or ATOM suit related and Nora couldn’t honestly care if she understood what she was saying, all she was focusing on was the feeling of Ray’s arm around her shoulder. She reached up and threaded her fingers with his and she felt a small kiss to the top of her head.

This whole “let’s show PDA” was the best-worst idea Nora had ever come up with.

She was caught up in her own world when she realized that the table had gone silent.

She looked up to see Ray almost glaring, could Ray glare? This was like pissing off Bambi!

She looked and around Nate was glaring back and everyone else was glaring at Nate.

What the hell had he done?

Finally, she fixated on Ray’s voice. Her favorite sound in the world.

“Your father sent you here to what now?”

Nate tried to defend himself. “Ray, buddy, I volunteered for this so my dad wouldn’t have some Time Bureau idiot who didn’t know you make judgement calls that weren’t fair.”

“What’s going on?” Nora asked.

“Nate agreed to let the Time Bureau watch us like hawks to make sure this marriage isn’t just a charade to get you out. I don’t know how many ways I could explain to you how unnecessary and insulting that is.”

“They just have dots they can’t connect in your relationship and it made them question the validity of your claim.”

“Claim? This is a marriage. We committed to one another til death do us part. We are in love, what proof do you need, watching us have sex?”

Nora sucked in a breath and made a “get me the hell out of this conversation” face. “Okay Ray, I think we all need to simmer down. I was a dangerous fugitive for a while. This is just a precaution.”

Ray, still fuming, sagged back in his chair. “Doesn’t make it right. This is our private life and our marriage and no one else gets to judge whether or not it’s real.”

Nora sighed. If this had been a real marriage she may be right there with him, screaming at Nate. But it wasn’t. She couldn’t believe ray was so fast to defend the actually fake marriage. She almost believed every word he said.

Almost.

xxxx

Nora just had to get away from the group for a while, even Ray. She wanted to be somewhere escapist, but where could you escape to on a time ship?

Into the world of a video game, of course.

Nora lightly knocked on Zari’s door and the brunette totem bearer opened it, looking confused to see her on the other side.

“Can I help you?” Zari asked.

“Can you teach me how to play video games? I just… really need an escape after that awkward as hell dinner we just had.”

“Umm yeah sure…” Zari wasn’t sure what she was agreeing to exactly, not friendship with Nora surely, but she would be fine with just letting her escape and as long as she didn’t teach her too well, Zari also, however, wouldn’t be opposed to playing video games with Nora on a more regular basis.

They’d been playing for about an hour now, Nora finally getting the hang of the controls. Zari was becoming increasingly concerned with how invested Nora was getting in the game, not that it wasn’t good, but that even Zari knew it wasn’t healthy to just escape like that.

“I can’t believe those Time Bureau asshats actually think that you guys being married isn’t real. I mean just look at you guys, you’re nauseating.” Zari watched as Nora paused her fingers over the console and ended up letting Zari getting the lead in the game.

“Yeah… I know…”

“I mean… it isn’t just a rouse, is it?” Zari furrowed her brows.

Nora put down the controller and looked at Zari, guilt riddling her features.

“No! What!? Are you serious? Dude you could so get sent back prison and Ray could so get sent there right with you!”

“I know and that means you can’t tell anyone, Zari. I don’t want Ray getting into trouble. It might have been his idea but he still doesn’t deserve it because his heart was in the right place.”

“What do you mean?”

Nora delved into the whole story and how she and Ray had been working on keeping up appearances but she wasn’t sure how much longer she could do that for, especially with Nate on the ship on behalf of the Bureau.

Zari, blown away by all of the information she was just given, finally finds her words. “That… wow… “

“You can’t tell anyone, not even Ray, that you know.”

“Why not? So he won’t act like normal around me? Wait a minute are you like actually in love with him?”

“No! Yes… maybe… a little bit? Oh who am I kidding from the minute this started I’ve wanted it to be real. I’m completely in love with Ray Palmer but it never will be real…”

“You don’t know that? You guys convinced me pretty good. Ray looks at you like you hang the moon.”

Nora shook her head. “I highly that doubt. He’s just trying to play the part so we don’t get caught.”

Zari scoffed. “Yeah and I squeeze Charlie’s ass for fun.”

Nora pinched the bridge of her nose. “Zari, I don’t think it really matters if Ray reciprocates, if he doesn’t feel the same that makes things complicated between us because then he might not want to act the part as much and we’d get found out.”

“But if he does love you like I’m pretty sure he does, nothing will change, you’ll still be the same nauseating, heart eye making, only Lily and Marshall from How I Met Your Mother rivaling couple anyone has ever met.”

“Who in the hell are Lily and Marshall? Is this from some tv show I missed out on because I was either too young or too demon possessed?”

“I think too young… before stuff went to hell in a handbasket in the future my parents and I would watch the reruns. You’re not missing a whole lot, except for the finale, we don’t talk about that. Lily and Marshall were the anchor of their friend group. It was like no matter what might change in the lives of that friend group, one thing was always constant: Lily and Marshall would always be together. They were positive, the most serious, most affectionate, most not afraid to talk about their feelings couple of the friend group.”

“We aren’t that, we aren’t even close to that.” Nora laughed. “I’d love for that to be Ray and me, but it honestly will never happen.”

“You never know, Nora.”

“I do know, Zari.” She sighed. “I finally have the thing I most wanted and it’s all going to disappear eventually because it couldn’t be built on a bigger lie.”

“I think you need to really think through this. When Charlie came onto the ship, stuck looking like Amaya, I wasn’t sure what to think. I had these feelings for Amaya that I couldn’t really figure out a place to put, then she left to live out the rest of her life in Zambesi but the this person… this person with a personality so much more my speed came in and looked exactly like someone I had let slip through my fingers and it was like the perfect blend of everything I was wanting and more. I had to let myself feel like this wouldn’t all explode because she looked like Amaya or stop myself from feeling that way because of that either. I had to let myself feel and risk getting hurt because being loved by her, if she reciprocated, was going to be so much sweeter and much more incredible than wasting my life wondering what might have been.”

Nora nodded. “And I’m happy for you guys, but I think there’s only room for one person risking their heart for love on this ship.” Nora stood up. “But I appreciate what you’re trying to do here.”

Zari stood with her and smiled sadly. “I’m sorry this mess is so complicated… why did Ray want you out of there so badly if he wasn’t like crazy in love with you?”

“He didn’t think it was the safest place for me anymore, he felt like the Waverider would be the safest place for me now.”

“So he thought the one plausible reason to break you out would be to drum up this crazy scenario where he and you have been married this entire time? The one scenario?”

Nora pursed her lips, Zari had a point but she could also see Ray caring about her safety so much that he didn’t care about what plan, just saw the first one that worked and decided to go ahead and just do that, damn all other and possibly more logical options.

“I don’t know… you have a point… I mean other than scientific equations, when was the last time Ray Palmer thought with his head instead of his heart?”

Zari nodded. “Exactly. And hey, I’m going to keep this brief, but since I’m the only one that knows if you wanna talk to someone about this, my door is always open unless you hear loud music or me kicking someone’s ass at video games, or me and Charlie sounding less than okay for company… this wasn’t brief at all dammit that husband of yours is rubbing off on me… oh sorry…”

Nora couldn’t help but laugh at Zari’s kind ramblings. “Thanks. I do appreciate that.”

“Wow Ray must really be rubbing off on me cause this kind of feels like a hug thing.”

Nora smiled. “Sure.” Nora opened her arms and Zari hugged her, not tightly, not too affectionately, just a friend letting another friend know through physical contact that they cared and were there for them. Nora hugged her back and pulled away after a moment. “I’ll see you later.”

“Bye, Mrs. Palmer.” Zari saluted her with two fingers and Nora rolled her eyes as she walked out of Zari’s room.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Many thanks to my Golden Girls once again for reading through this! Love y'all!

Ray would wear a hole into the floor of the bridge. He was sure of it but he couldn’t help himself. They were out on a mission and then suddenly Nora was just _not there_. She had her time stone back now, sure, but he knew she hadn’t taken it with her when they left. She could probably disappear to another part of the planet but just not time with her magic alone but it just wasn’t like her.

They were doing so good. They were getting closer and Ray will never forgive himself if he never sees her again. How he felt had been on the tip of his tongue before they left but he didn’t want to spook her or scare her so he kept quiet.

He so wished he hadn’t now.

Sara was trying to do scans of Nora anywhere in that year but only images where she was still with the team were popping up. Something wasn’t right.

He never expected the answer though, to come from a very irate looking Ava Sharpe stepping onto the bridge with her time courier.

“I think I may know what happened to Miss Darhk.” Ava said and placed a small file on the center console.

“Mrs. Palmer,” Ray instinctively corrected. If he found Nora, safe and alive and she felt the same, he was going to make her Mrs. Palmer for real this time.

Ava ignored his correction and continued talking. “An agent of the Time Bureau did not report to his post this morning. Coincidentally, he’d been invited into meetings with Hank Heywood for the last week or two. He still has his time courier in possession and your wife’s disappearance may be linked to odd behavior and some of the other’s creatures stints away from their cells for ‘routine testing’ as some fancy lab coat wearing person told me as they shoved a presidential order in my face.”

Ray slammed his fist into the center console _denting it._ Nate’s dad had his wife and he was going to get her back if he had to rip Hank Heywood limb from limb to do it.

Sara, not sure if she’d ever seen Ray this angry, placed a hand in his arm. “We’re gonna find her, Ray. And when we do we’re going to kick whoever’s ass kidnapped her. Even if it’s in the name of science and backed by the government we will kick each and every person’s ass that we have to until we can get Nora back safely.”

“I knew it. I…” realizing his cover maybe be blown if he didn’t word what he said next correctly. “I was so happy to have tracked down our marriage certificate to get her out of there because i knew it wasn’t safe for her anymore. I had my suspicions for a really long time and you,” He turned his attention to Nate. “You knew about the testing already didn’t you?”

“Ray… I thought my dad was talking about actually still volatile unrepentant dangerous creatures, not your wife.”

“Well apparently he thinks she’s one of them and now he’s taken her. Do you know where they’ve been taking the creatures for testing?”

“It could be one of three facilities. They’re heavily guarded though.”

“Good thing we have an in, you.”

“If I go there to break out your wife I could lose my job!”

“And if we don’t break her out Nora could lose her life!” Ray was about to charge at Nate but Sara stopped him.

“Guys, we’ll divide and conquer, Nate you’ll go with us to the facility they most likely have Nora at, Ava will go with us to the other and if she’s not at either place we’ll meet up at the third, got it? If either of us finds her we’ll alert the other team.” Sara wasn’t sure if even after the plan if letting go of Ray still wouldn’t result in Nate getting the crap kicked out of him but she took the risk.

Ray stood down and Sara sighed in relief. She’d let him punch Nate later. Now they had a job to do.

xxxx

Ray, fully suited up, approached the facility shrunken down to the smallest he could go. He was flying next to Nate, who was dressed to look like he was on official Bureau business. He landed on Nate’s lapel and watched him be let through checkpoint after checkpoint.

Nate didn’t immediately start asking questions about Nora, and ray hoped that the intention was to not make people suspicious of why he was there. Ray watched as Nate continued down the halls and he almost thought to activate his noise canceling affect on his helmet. The screams of other inmates were maddening. Painful. He was going to figure out a way to get them out once he had Nora safe in his arms.

Finally, Ray watched Nate approach a doctor.

“Ah you must be here to confirm the safe transfer of our latest specimen.”

“That’s right, my father wanted me to personally see to the completion of the transfer. He wanted me to visually ensure the specimen was alive and in one piece. They’re no use to us any other way, remember.”

“Of course, Agent Heywood, right this way.”

Nate followed the doctor to a door that looked like could withstand a nuclear bomb and he was let through behind the doctor. They walked another twenty feet down a hallway before coming upon a similar door. Same routine. He followed until Nate could see a light coming from a small window in the next door. The door opened and Nate almost fainted.  
Nora, hooked up to he didn’t even know how many machines, busted lip, bruises on most of the visible parts of her body. Some cuffs on her wrists probably to affect her magic being used unless they wanted it to.

Nate did not want this. Not in any conversation he had had with his dad did Nate want this for Nora or any other inmate at the Bureau’s prison.

Nate tried to not pale, but the doctor already gave him a look. He’d been standing there for too long saying nothing.

Well, their cover was about to be blown anyways.

Ray enlarged and jumped off Nate’s shoulder at the same time. He punched out the doctor and the other worker in the room. An alarm started sounding and Nate steel’d up, ripping a control panel off the wall to see if he could disable the alarm.

“I’ll hold all of them off, Ray, just get Nora out of here!”

Ray could barely breathe at the sight of Nora. She was sedated probably and he wasn’t sure what machines would do what to her once she was unhooked to them. He scanned each machine and started with the simplest one and worked his way up. Once he disconnected a certain machine, Nora jolted awake.

“Ray! Ray! Ray!” Nora frantically looked around and settled on Ray in his suit and reached up and hugged him. “Ray, I was so scared. How did you find me?”

“Nate. It’s a long story but you need to get out of here now.”

Nora nodded and helped Ray unhook her from the last of the machines. “Shit,” she said.

“What?”

“The cuffs they dampen my magic I can’t take them off.”

“What do you need to take them off?”

“I… I don’t know, they would put them under this light and they could come off but maybe just brute strength might work.”

Ray managed to get two gloved fingers underneath one cuff and pulled, hard. It snapped in two and he did the same with the others. They were about to leave when more security poured in from another entrance. Nora started using her powers to take them out, fighting her way through as well. She felt someone hit her hard on the back of the head and already weak from using magic after hours of torture, she felt her whole world fade to black.

Ray watched Nora fall to the ground and he saw red, taking out any agent he find in order to get to Nora. He picked her up and bolted out of the door, he told the rest of the team he had Nora but she was hurt bad. He’d meet them back at the Waverider. When he was finally outside he flew off, Nora in his arms, trying to get to the Waverider as fast as possible.  
He was not going to lose her.

xxxx

Gideon was doing all she could for Nora but Ray knew that only time would help Nora fully recover. Her body was almost completely exhausted from both the stress her body took while she was kidnapped and from using her magic to fight her way to safety. He hated that he had let her out of his sight. It was his fault. They should’ve stuck together but she went to go find Zari and then was never seen again.

Ray hadn’t let go of her hand since he’d settled her into the chair. He’d gotten out of his ATOM suit but now he was just sitting in the chair next to her, wondering if he stared long enough, she would wake up.

Gideon said at the minimum it would be several hours. Repairing the physical injuries didn’t seem to be much of a problem but something about Nora’s magic needed to heal on its own. Ray felt a hand on his shoulder and jumped. He saw it was Zari, who was trying to not cry herself.

She pulled a chair up next to his and wrapped an arm around his shoulders. “She’s gonna be okay. She’s the strongest one of us.”

“I can’t lose her. I just got her. I need her to be okay.” Ray wiped away tears threatening to spill over and wouldn’t take his eyes off Nora. “I shouldn’t have let her try to find you on her own. I should’ve gone with her.”

“You couldn’t have known what would’ve happened. It’s not your fault. I was waiting for her but I should’ve been looking for her.” Zari tried to not let herself cry. “She’s gonna be okay though. We found her alive and that’s how she’s going to stay. Plain and simple. And she’ll recover and you guys will go back to being your adorable married selves and have lots of little Palmer babies.”

Ray choked out a laugh. “I’d love to believe all of that is true but sometimes I sit back and realize that I am always somehow meant to lose it all just before I can have it all.”

Zari shook her head. “You can’t think like that. You married Nora because you guys love each other. Nothing will change that. I came here to prove it to you.” She pulled out a bundle from her jacket. “I may have broken into your room for this but here are all of the letters she wrote you. I figured since she can’t talk back, this would help.”

Ray took them, too desperate to hear from Nora somehow to be concerned with the fact that Zari had broken into their room. “Thanks. I’ll give these a read later.”  
“I think you need to read them now, it’ll help the time go by. I’ll bring you some food in an hour, okay?”

Ray nodded and Zari patted his back.

“Zari?”

“Yeah, Ray?”

“Thanks. For this and for being Nora’s friend since she came on board. She needs more of those.”

“Anytime, big fella. I’ll see you in an hour.”

xxxx

Ray had kept every letter in chronological order. Meticulously so. He started with the first one she’d written back to him after sticking himself in an envelope and tried to sneak into her cell. He got to the one where she said she liked men with mustaches. Got to the one where she was writing about how she was still laughing over the fact that he did it and all of the chaos that had ensued because of it. He poured over each and every last letter, Zari had brought him food two hours prior and he ate it while only on Nora’s fourth letter. There was probably over a dozen there. He traced his fingers over her gentle script and thought about her sitting in her cell, writing those letters after reading his, hoping his latest letter had given her a good dose of hope.

He had about three letters left when he picked up one that had never been opened. That was odd. He had opened and nearly memorized every last letter Nora had written him. He opened it, wondering what could be inside.

He pulled out the letter and saw Nora’s handwriting and looked at the date. The same day he broke her out of prison. She had been planning on sending it.

_Dear Ray,_

_I know I’ve told you probably hundreds of times that your letters keep me going while I’m in here. I don’t know if I would feel like I could have purpose if I didn’t have the routine of writing back to you. You are the most important person in my life._

_I was flustered at first by your suggestion that we somehow get ‘fake’ married in order to break me out of here. It’s really not that bad here, I have Mona to sneak me good food and good books and her to talk to when she’s not talking at me so I’m not alone. Which is what I was most afraid of. I feel alone sometimes in the middle of the night but then I remember that I’m either expecting a letter from you the next day or you’re coming to visit and I feel less alone._

_But honestly? I would love to be fake married to you, Ray Palmer. Actually strike that. I would love to be married to you. I’ve been thinking about how to say this for a while. And I just knew I had to lay it all out there, consequences be damned. Your words of hope and your visits and your hugs even have done so much for me. They’ve made me fall in love with you._

_I have never been in love before but I’ve also never felt this way about another person so that must mean love, right? I dreamed about this stuff as a little girl. A princess being rescued from a tower by the knight she loves. I think that would be the perfect way to start our story. I know of course that would be crazy. We would probably have to actually have a date first. And of course this is all contingent on if you love me back. If you don’t, I understand. The person destined to end up with Ray Palmer needs to have solved world hunger to be worthy of being loved by you. I don’t want this to change us if you don’t feel the same. I’ve always valued your unwavering support in me but if you feel more than that, please let me know._

_I love you, Ray, I don’t know when it started and it probably will never stop, I just wanted you to know._

_All my love,_

_Nora_

Ray put down the letter, his hands shaking. Nora was in love with him. He thought back to the last few weeks. All of their small touches in public and behind closed doors. Their kisses and embraces. Nora wasn’t guarded because she felt guilty about lying to the Legends.

Nora had been guarded because she didn’t want to let herself indulge in a lie she had wanted to be true.

Ray couldn’t breathe. He had to get out of there. He didn’t want to leave her but he also needed to think. He asked Gideon to get Zari, the only person he could trust to watch after Nora while he was gone and ran off to the bathroom, needing to get out of there and just think.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One more chapter and then the epilogue! Also this chapter is why there is the M rating. ;)

Ray stood there in the shower, trying to process through everything that had happened. In 24 hours he went from being in a very fake marriage with a woman he was in love with who he wasn’t sure loved him back to rescuing her from a government agency who had definitely been testing on her and getting her back alive but unconscious and finding out she was just as in love with him as he was with her.

But did she want him to ever know that?

Ray would never ever push Nora into something she didn’t want to do and that would also include confessing very real feelings for him even though he felt the same. He wanted to just make sure she was okay, regardless of whether or not he’d get a profession of love out of Nora.

“Dr. Palmer,” Gideon said over the coms, “your wife is awake.”

Ray almost broke down the shower door to get out of there fast enough.

xxxx

He walked into the medbay, after changing into some sweats and immediately went to Nora. Zari had stepped back, wanting to respect their private moment and Ray wasted no time in kissing Nora full on the lips. He knew he wanted to wait for her to actually admit she was in love with him do any more than kissing her, but his wife, their marriage being fake be damned, was okay and they had an audience and he was going to use the excuse to kiss her because she was okay. She was alive and okay.

Nora pulled away, tears in her eyes. She was happy to see him. So happy she was finally safe and back with Ray. She wanted to say so many things but hoped the kiss said some of them. They would have to talk later, when she could finally tell him how she really felt.

“You’re awake, I was so scared I had lost you… I’m so sorry I didn’t go with you to meet up with Zari.” Ray pressed a kiss to her forehead, now completely crying.

Nora sat up and hugged Ray tightly, just wanting human contact. She felt his damp hair, realizing he must have just been showering when she woke up and she breathed him in. His fresh scent overwhelming and comforting her all at the same time.

She wanted to tell him everything, what had happened from the minute that she was kidnapped to just before he rescued her but all she could muster was, “I’m okay, Ray, I promise I’m okay and I’m not going anywhere,” before burrowing back into his embrace.

xxxx

Ray sat next to Nora on her chair, holding her hand tighter than he probably needed to but he needed to be touching her somehow to make sure she was still there and still okay. Nate and Sara joined him, Nora, and Zari in the medbay.

Nora felt Ray’s grip tighten in her hand and she looked up at Ray, she placed a hand on his arm to calm him.

Sara spoke first. “Glad to see you’re awake, Nora, I’m also glad I can add this to the list of reasons I want to punch Hank Heywood.”

Nora smiled at Sara trying to diffuse the tension in the room. “Thanks, Sara, I’m just happy to be back here with Ray.”

“Nora, is there anything you could tell us about how they got you and why they wanted to run tests on you?” Nate asked, even if he wasn’t quite sure if he should.

Nora felt Ray tense again and he let go of her hand. He stood up and Nora grabbed his arm, not sure what he was going to do but she could feel it had been building inside of him.

“I don’t really think that this really the best time and there won’t be ever a best time for you to ask her that and I kind of really don’t want you talking to her at all. You and your dad have done enough, I think you should leave,” Ray said.

“I didn’t know he would kidnap her! We are strictly forbidden from testing on humanoid subjects. We only ever looked further at some of the other inmates was because they have physiology we can’t even begin to comprehend by just asking them. Nora was never supposed to get tested on.”

“But because of how powerful my magic can be I guess your dad still saw too many unknown factors and decided to bend the rules. You shouldn’t have even allowed him to start testing on anyone in that facility. They may have done some bad stuff but if you talked to any of them they’d tell you they did it out of survival not out of malice. You all just all just have a pretty quick trigger finger and you definitely overshot this one. I don’t want to talk to you about any of this, Ray’s right about that. But you did help rescue me and if there’s anyone that knows about making up for their past it’s me so… maybe he shouldn’t have to go just yet.”

Ray was surprised at Nora’s words and the strength in them. He was so proud at her growth, willing to give Nate a second chance despite knowing about all of the testing. “You’ve just been given a gift, Nate. You better not mess it up. However, there is one thing I still want to say to you.”

Nate looked at Ray in hesitation. “Yeah?...”

Ray said nothing more but instead punched him right in the face.

Nora was almost too turned on to scold him.

xxxx

Nora almost died without telling Ray how she felt. Almost. Died. That had to change. The minute she was able to walk out of medbay, she knew she wanted to tell him everything, be everything to him. She saw the way he was protective over her, the way he had kissed her when she first woke up, surely he felt something back. But even if he didn’t, she needed to get it off her chest before she let him slip through her fingers.

She was being helped down the hallway by Ray. He, between crying, was doing his best to encourage her. When they reached their room, Nora walked ahead of him. They shut the door behind him and Nora ordered him to sit on the bed.

“You should be resting…” he started.

“No I need to get this out.”

“Umm okay?…” Ray sat on the bed as ordered and watched her pace back and forth for a minute before finally stopping in front of him.

Nora took a deep breath in, ready to let every last thing out. “I have not known how to say this to you, I don’t think I’m even going to get it right, right now, but I need to say it before one of us almost dies again or you go off and find someone that is a lot better for you than I am. I’m in love with you, Ray. I have been in love with you for so long and I was going to tell you when we got back from the mission but then everything went down the way it did and I knew that the second you kissed me when I woke up I wanted to you tell you so it could be real. So all of this could be real and I know that also contingent on you feeling the same and if you don’t I understand and we can call this whole thing off and I can return to time prison and you can find love wherever you’re meant to but I needed to tell you.

I didn’t want to go through something like that again without telling you how I really felt. I’ve wanted this to be real since day one and I’m sorry that I’ve lied to you about things, I’m sorry that I just have been chalking things up to guilt over not telling the rest of the Legends and yeah I do feel bad about that but I feel worse letting myself actually enjoy kissing you and touching you and being with you when this is supposed to be fake and the chances of you actually reciprocating my feelings are slimmest possible odds but I had to tell you. Okay… I think that’s it.”

Ray was so touched by her words that he almost let too long of a pause linger between her confession and his reply. He shook his head and smiled. “I know.”

Nora, feeling like she had just tried so hard on a test that only was worth participation points, “you what?”

“I know… when you were unconscious, Zari brought me the letters you had written me while you were in prison and somehow a letter you hadn’t sent ended up in the pile and I figured you had sent it a while ago and I just hadn’t read it yet but it was…”

“A letter confessing how in love with you I was?”

Ray nodded. “Yeah, I noticed it was dated for the day I came and broke you out… if I hadn’t jumped the gun we could’ve just gotten married for real.”

Nora, now crying tears of joy, threw herself into Ray’s lap and wrapped her arms around his neck. “Ray Palmer, you always think with your heart, not your head, and I love you for it.”

“I love you too, Nora,” he replied, “I’ve loved you for a really long time too and I felt bad that I was letting myself enjoy our rouse as much as I was because I felt like I was taking advantage of you if you didn’t feel the same. But now that I know you do…”

“I don’t want to waste another second of us feeling uncertain about how the other feels,” Nora leaned in and kissed him.

It felt like he was kissing her for the first time since this was the first time they both knew how the other felt. Ray cupped the back of her head and pulled her impossibly closer. They stayed like that for several minutes, exchanging languid kisses, trying to enjoy the closeness of the other.

Nora pulled away and swallowed hard. The look she gave him, Ray couldn’t quite discern until she was pulling her shirt over her head and tossing it to the floor. Oh, he finally understood: want.

“Nora… are you sure, you really should be resting… and we just said how we feel about each other.”

“I am not wasting another minute of my life, Ray Palmer. If you don’t want to do this, we don’t have to but I want to.”

“Okay… but if you want to stop you tell me, got it?”

Nora nodded, touched by his constant need to check on her. She found the hem of his shirt and tugged it off him then kissed him again. She felt Ray unclip her bra and she pulled away to remove it then crawled over to the middle of the bed and laid back, propping herself up on her elbows. Ray moved to her and kissed her softly. She ran her hands down his now bare back, over the scars he no doubt had received from all the fights he he won before meeting her. She felt something wet touch her cheek and pulled away from the kiss to see Ray crying again. She cupped his cheeks and looked him in the eyes.

“Ray, are you okay?”

“I almost lost you… it doesn’t seem real that so soon after almost losing you that we’re here.”

“I’m real. I promise. What I feel for you is real, I love you, I want to be with you. There’s no need to cry…” She wiped the tears away from his cheeks. “I need to be with you, I thought I was never going to see you again. I need to feel this close to you.”

“I need you too but I don’t want to scare you…” Ray brushed a curl away from her face and Nora leaned into the touch.

Nora smiled. “You’re not going to scare me. You’re the only person I’ve never been afraid of. I’ve been afraid, terrified actually, of losing you, but I’ve never been afraid of you. You’re the one person that makes me feel safe. That makes me feel at home. I want to do this, I want to be with you.”

Home. Ray loved the thought of her being at home with him. Ray nodded then kissed her again and started placing kisses down her neck. Nora craned her neck back to give him better access and stroked her hand through his hair. He kissed between her breasts, down to her belly button, and back up. Nora reached between them and shoved his sweatpants down and he worked on the button of her jeans.

After another few moments they were bare to each other. Nora reached up and cupped his cheek, pulling him in for a sweet kiss. “I need you.” She needed him to make love to her yes, but she needed him to also love her, cherish her, never leave her side, be with her in the all the ways they’d been faking for the last few weeks.

Ray nodded and slid inside of her.

All of the weeks of faking being married to this man were worth it for this moment alone. Nora ran her nails up and down Ray’s back, urging him to move. It wasn’t as painful as she was anticipating her first time to be. She had needed a moment to adjust to all the new sensations she was feeling but now she just wanted more. Needed more from him.

Ray moved at a slow pace, trying to let her adjust to everything, he placed kisses along her neck, not caring if they left marks and pulled their bodies as close together as he could. He just needed to feel her. Everything about her. If he didn’t he was sure he’d lose her.

Nora wrapped her legs around his waist to encourage his movements. The feelings were starting to become overwhelming but she didn’t want to let go just yet. She gripped the back of his neck and pulled him in for another kiss, trying to focus on the kiss rather than the feeling of their hips bumping together pleasantly.

She tore her lips away to look into his eyes. I’m close. Almost as if Ray could read her mind. Maybe he could? He nodded and started moving faster until they were both reaching their climaxes and collapsed together onto the bed. They laid there stroking each other’s limbs, smiling happily, trying to not let the moment die.

Ray tugged the covers over them, trying to bundle up and protect his wife. He could say that now, couldn't he? Now that they knew how the other felt. He placed a kiss to her hair and pulled her into his side.

“How are you feeling?” He asked.

Nora had never felt more alive.

“I’m not really sure I can put that into words yet but I don’t regret what we did if that helps.” She walked two fingers up and down his forearm. “And I’d like to do it again sometime soon.”  
Ray nodded. “Well… I’m glad you’re doing okay.” He kissed her forehead. “I do think you should get some actual rest though, we have the rest of our lives to do that.”

Nora smiled. “I suppose you’re right. But I don’t want this night to end just yet…”

xxxx

The next morning Nora’s world felt different. A little colder perhaps, only because she woke up without a single stitch of clothing on. When she opened her eyes it was as if her world was more colorful though. Every single thing seemed brighter. She felt an arm around her waist and laid on her back to see Ray waking up. She closed her eyes as he kissed her forehead and he cupped her cheek.

“Good morning,” he said in a low, sleepy voice.

Nora smiled. “Mmmm Good morning indeed.” Nora tangled her fingers with his. “You know… I had a dream last night that we actually told the other how we felt. Oh wait that did happen. And then something even more wonderful happened.” She leaned up and kissed him softly. “I’ve thought about this a lot. What it would be like to wake up with you after telling you how I felt. I used to pretend when I’d wake up before you. I’d just lay there, being held by you, enjoying the feeling as if it were real.”

Ray stroked her hair absently. “I thought about that a lot too. I wanted to tell you but I also didn’t want to read into something that wasn’t really there or scare you. I wanted you to say something first.”

“I should’ve written the letter sooner. We could have been doing this all along.”

“I think we needed to figure things out before either of us found out. Now we know so much and we don’t have to hold back going forward, Mrs. Palmer.”

Nora covered her face with her hands in embarrassment. Ray took her left hand away and played with the rings on her finger. “I’m glad we got to at least exchange rings even if the license is fake.”

“Yeah… I don’t think I’m ever going to forget that. Also I don’t think I’m ever going to get used to actually being referred to as Mrs. Palmer now that we really love each other.”

“I’ll just have to call you it until you get used to it, Mrs. Palmer.”

Nora giggled and pulled him on top of her. “Whatever you say, Mr. Palmer.”


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here we are! We've reached the end! I hope you all enjoyed this fic! If you liked it feel free to comment! Thanks again to beth and sophie for always supporting me and this fic.

_Three Months Later_

Another day, another Legends mission completed. Nora couldn’t wait to get out of the corset she was wearing and not because she knew she would probably immediately just fall into bed with Ray but because it was just so damn uncomfortable. Who invented these things? Why were they ever a staple of fashion?

They all had decided before any of them parted ways that they would have a post mission pizza party. Nora had whined to Ray about wanting nothing more than to just crawl into bed with him but he had begged her and even bribed her with stuffed crust pizza. Nora had agreed and that was now why Ray was dragging his still technically fake wife into the galley for a pizza party.

Nora sat down next to Ray with a plate full of pizza and dove in, not realizing how hungry she was. Ray had an arm across the back of her chair and she just observed all of the people around her, they were her family now. Her sentence was technically over and had been for the past month thanks to Ava noting that during her stay on the Waverider she had also been quite instrumental in helping bring in several magical creatures that did in fact intend to do harm.

She felt Ray nudge her shoulder and she looked up at him and then at the group. “What?”

“They want to know if we’d ever do an actual ceremony.” Ray grinned.

Nora shrugged. “Hmmm I’m not sure. I’d like to, I think it would be fun as long as it’s not like the last wedding everyone was at where Nazis attacked from another earth, that was an interesting story that Zari told but also that aside, I really think we should wait until after the baby is born to do it so I can actually fit properly into a wedding dress.”

Dead. Silence.

Ray smiled knowingly down at Nora. She had only told him the other night after suspecting for a while, not believing, and finally having Gideon run a test. She wasn’t even showing, not even close, but they wanted to tell their friends… no their family… as soon as the time had felt right now that Ray knew.

Zari was the first person to be able to regain her ability to speak. “You’re pregnant?”

Nora nodded. “I am.”

The two women stood and hugged each other. Neither Zari nor Nora were really one for hugs unless it was their significant other but both felt like it was just a hug kind of moment, they had also become close friends the longer Nora had been on the Waverider. They broke away and Zari gestured for the whole group to get in on it.

“This is a group hug thing now everyone, we won’t do this again because Nora would probably turn us all into rodents but this is to celebrate the newest member of the Legends,” Zari said.

After dinner Nora and Ray were walking back to their room with smiles on their face. Their hands occasionally brushed and Ray finally took her hand, intertwining their fingers.

“Are you glad we told them?” Nora asked. “I just couldn’t help myself after Zari asked me the question.”

Ray grinned. “I’m thrilled, period. Nothing could dampen my mood right now.” They walked into their room and Ray helped her out of the dress. Ray undid his tie and walked over to his desk, trying to organize it into something that resembled order when he picked up a tri-folded piece of paper. He laughed and unfolded it. Their fake marriage license.

He looked it over, still shocked he was able to pull off getting one for them without Nora present. He felt Nora come up behind him and run her hands up his ab muscles.

“Whatcha lookin at?” She asked, now in a soft nightgown and her hair down in waves and poked her head around from behind him. “Oh, that.” She laughed.

“We should get a real one of these.” Ray chuckled and wrapped an arm around her.

Gideon’s voice came over the coms in their room. “Dr. Palmer, were you never informed of the legitimacy of your marriage certificate to Miss Darhk?”

“No? Was I supposed to be, Gideon?”

“After you and Miss Darhk began a genuine relationship, I was supposed to inform you that your marriage license has been legitimate all along. I apologize for the delay.”

Ray and Nora looked at each other. “What does that mean, Gideon?” Nora asked.

“You and Dr. Palmer have been legally married this entire time, Mrs. Palmer.”

Ray and Nora simply bursted out laughing, ignoring whatever the AI was saying to them next.


End file.
